A little blog about life, family, food, and living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest

Thursday, July 10, 2008

People Pleasin' Pork -- Chops that is!

I had originally purchased these choppers with grand plans of a BBQ feast. As I placed them in my grocery cart, I envisioned roasting them on the grill with a healthy slathering of yummy sauce. However, the next day when it came time to make them, my taste for BBQ had waned, and I wanted just a good ol' plain grilled chop. It was hot and I was tired and those piglets of mine wanted to do stuff, so I changed menus. They were so easy to make. Here's what you need:

1. Prep your chops by slicing the fat that rims the edge opposite the bone. I usually make just one perpendicular cut all the way through the fat right to the meat. This will keep your chop from curling when it hits the heat. See how flat my chops are? (Hmm, seems like there should be a boring joke inserted here.)

2. Combine the remaining ingredients in your favorite marinade container. I started off using a Ziploc bag, but the bone on one of the chops speared a hole in it, so I transferred everything to a foil covered baking dish. Put back in the fridge for at least an hour; a couple of hours would be better.

Note: I use canola oil for chops because it seems to take the heat of the grill better than olive oil. Also, I used very little of it ... just enough to produce a sheen on the chops and then there's no need to drain the marinade. Using this method, I've yet to have a chop stick to the grill, and it turns out perfect every time.

Also, my family doesn't like stuff on their food (see my eye roll here). So, I leave my chives and sage leaves whole so I can pick them off before grilling. Man, the things I do for love ...

3. About 20 minutes before grilling, take the meat out of the fridge to let it lose some of it's chill. Fire up the gas grill on high, and when it reaches about 500 degrees, place the chops on, close the lid, and immediately turn the grill down to med-low. Let them cook for 5 minutes, then turn them over and let them go for another 6 minutes. Then, remove them from the grill to a platter and cover with foil. Let them sit for another five minutes before serving. They are perfect. I wanted to take a photo of them sliced so you could see how juicy they are, but the wild boars at my table were hungry. I don't mess with hungry wild boars.

Accompanying these lovely chops was a simple fruit salad that my children and husband made. Insert applause here. Like I mentioned earlier, I was tired and enlisted their services. I set out a bunch of fruit, a huge bowl, and told them to have at it. They did outstanding work, don't you think? Gorgeous kiwi, ripe strawberries (that actually made it into the serving bowl), juicy nectarines, sweet green grapes, fresh pineapple, and these darling miniscule grapes called Zante Currant Munchkin Grapes. See how little they are (strawberry lover #2's modeling hand). Compare them to the green grapes shown in the bowl.

I've found that sometimes when it comes to serving kids, simple straightforward meals are best. Plain grilled chops, fruit salad, and rice made up our meal. Oh, and homemade real sweet iced tea. That's it. And absolutely nothing was left. They ate every bite. People pleasin' pork! Bust those chops, baby!

Paula, thanks for visiting. Wild boars... indeed that reminded my children when they are hungry and I am trying to take a picture :) The pork chops do indeed look wonderful and the fruit salad is perfect. Pity we (in Greece) don't get all these fruit together. At this time of the year kiwis and strawberries are not in season and grapes will start appearing maybe this month.

Haha, you're right: the things we do out of love...my hubby doesn't like to feel onion chunks (sauteed, fried, boiled...it doesn't matter) so I always try to finely grate them.Pork chops are indeed a crowd pleaser...drool :)

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Homeschool Tips and Tools: 2010

Bananagrams! Not too long ago, my kids and I discovered a great new game called Bananagrams. Far more fast paced and loads easier to play than Scrabble, this game requires only a table top and kids to get the fun underway. Better yet, adults and kids of all ages can play together. The playing pieces come packaged in a delightful, banana colored and shaped, zippered cloth pouch. It's free formed fun, and great entertainment for the entire family.

From a homeschooling perspective, it's a great tool to segue into creative writing or story telling. My kids create their own Bananagram "puzzle" and then use the words they created to write or tell an impromptu story. Silly or serious, all type of stories are encouraged!

The book titled English from the Roots Up by Joegil K. Kundquist has rapidly become one of my favorite resources for building a strong vocabulary base for my children. This spiral bound book provides both Latin and Greek word roots that provides students with tools to help them determine word meanings. I absolutely love it, and the rapid results that I see in my children are amazing. This is way better than a spelling program; by studying word roots, my children are gaining a much broader understanding of language and the power of words. The lessons are very easy to administer, short in duration, and my kids enjoyed them.

On the writing frontier, there is a book called Story Starters, Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Beforeby Karen Andreola that provides writing prompts in the form of partially written stories for children to complete. While I found the book to be just ok, my children love it. I read the partially written story aloud, and they write the rest. The kids really enjoyed doing this as each of them looked forward to hearing the other's completed versions. This ended up being a great experience as the kids really wanted to impress their siblings with their version, and thus put more effort into their writing.

And for the grammar enthusiast lurking inside your student, here's a great book that explains how to diagram sentences. Diagraming Sentences by Deborah White Broadwater is a 46 page workbook complete with an answer key, and is perfect for your middle schooler.

Does your student embrace Science? Do you need quality supplies to conduct more in depth experiments at home? Check out Home Science Tools. I'm very impressed with the quality of the products we just ordered. Beakers, flasks, stirring rods, thermometers, chemicals, safety equipment, and so much more can be found and ordered on their website. www.homesciencetools.com . The items we received were top quality, the customer service rep was super, and the items were extremely well packed and delivered as promised. Look out Bill Nye ... future scientists in the house!Lapbooking and Notebooking are buzz words in the homeschool community. Here are two great resources for incorporating those strategies into your learning curriculum. Big Book of Booksby Dinah Zike and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbookby Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling helped me enhance our homeschooling experience using lapbooks. The content found in these books enabled me to teach a group of homeschool mom's how to incorporate lapbooking into their curriculums. You'll want to laminate your copies as they will get pulled off the shelf over and over again.